New Beginnings
Proposal Type
Individual Talk
Location
Hypertexts & Fictions
Start Date
July 2026
End Date
July 2026
Abstract
New Beginnings is a collectively written, process-driven literary work created through a custom-designed, time-based web interface and an algorithmic editorial system. Over a continuous period of 48 hours, 48 authors each wrote for one hour, following writing instructions generated and structured by a machine rather than through mutual coordination. Writing unfolded in strictly timed segments: texts appeared, disappeared, were saved to a server, enriched with metadata, and reassembled in real time by a script according to predefined rules and elements of chance.
The project deliberately shifts authorship away from individual ownership toward a shared, anonymized textual commons. While individual voices persist, they are detached from names and profiles, critically reflecting the logic of algorithmically curated social media timelines. Each contribution remains largely intact but is repositioned within a semi-chaotic, rule-based textual order that balances randomness with coherence.
New Beginnings is neither corpus literature nor pure cut-up, but an experiment situated between scripted writing, scripted editing, and interface design. The work foregrounds the role of software, timing, and digital infrastructure in shaping literary production and meaning. By framing writing as a negotiation between human input and machinic arrangement, New Beginnings exemplifies electronic literature as a collaborative, media-reflexive, and process-oriented practice.
New Beginnings
Hypertexts & Fictions
New Beginnings is a collectively written, process-driven literary work created through a custom-designed, time-based web interface and an algorithmic editorial system. Over a continuous period of 48 hours, 48 authors each wrote for one hour, following writing instructions generated and structured by a machine rather than through mutual coordination. Writing unfolded in strictly timed segments: texts appeared, disappeared, were saved to a server, enriched with metadata, and reassembled in real time by a script according to predefined rules and elements of chance.
The project deliberately shifts authorship away from individual ownership toward a shared, anonymized textual commons. While individual voices persist, they are detached from names and profiles, critically reflecting the logic of algorithmically curated social media timelines. Each contribution remains largely intact but is repositioned within a semi-chaotic, rule-based textual order that balances randomness with coherence.
New Beginnings is neither corpus literature nor pure cut-up, but an experiment situated between scripted writing, scripted editing, and interface design. The work foregrounds the role of software, timing, and digital infrastructure in shaping literary production and meaning. By framing writing as a negotiation between human input and machinic arrangement, New Beginnings exemplifies electronic literature as a collaborative, media-reflexive, and process-oriented practice.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2026/hypertextsandfictions/schedule/28
Bio
Jenni Bohn is the Deputy Artistic Director of the Burg-Hülshoff Center for Literature.
https://www.burg-huelshoff.de
Andreas Bülhoff is a researcher, poet, and publisher. He runs the post-digital publishing project sync.ed as well as the label for sonic poetry and language based sound works Spoken Matter. He also hosts the event series Tab Talks and co-founded the Library of Artistic Print on Demand.
https://abue.io/
Brendan Howell is an artist and a reluctant engineer. He is the creator of numerous interactive artworks and inventions. Additionally, he has spent a lot of time teaching digital practices in applied and fine arts at various European higher education institutions. He is also a member of the administrative do-ocracy of the Internet collective LURK and does, appropriately enough, sometimes lurk around those places. Additionally, he is the initiator of the Berlin Permacomputing Meet-Up and contributor to the Freiraumlabor gardening collective.
https://wintermute.org